Watch this space in Fear and Trepidation

On 29th March government proposals on changing the law on surrogacy will be announced.
We fear they will seek to legalise commercial surrogacy in order to stimulate the UK economy at vast personal cost to the women and children involved.

Our Surrogacy Conference in May 2022 was the first ever in the UK to explore this controversial issue from a radfem viewpoint, looking past the glamorised and sanitised media portrayals to the realities of the mothers and children involved.
We coined a new word – Surrocritical, and heard from

• Jennifer Lahl of the Centre for Bioethics and Culture, who introduced her new film exploring the family dynamics behind surrogacy and its role in family finances.
• Liz Purslow, a working midwife about the realities as she find them in the NHS, which of course has to pick up the pieces when things go wrong in private clinics.
• Dr Heather Brunskell Evans spoke about the inadequacies of the UK Law Commission’s recent consultation on surrogacy law and the absence of consideration of the effects on a real woman and her body.
  Kajsa Ekis Ekman spoke about the strong parallels between prostitution and surrogacy and pointed out that once we start dissociating from our body, we are open to many kinds of exploitation.
• Kelly-Jay Keen (aka ‘Posie Parker’) of Standing for Women spoke about her views as a mother, pointing out that it is not until you have your own child that you can fully understand what is involved in child-bearing. Hence men should butt out of these discussions.
• A Ukrainian surrogacy expert spoke via video link about the realities of surrogacy in the Ukraine, the orphanages full of disabled and rejected children, the poverty and corruption that leads women to use their bodies in this way.
• Gary Powell spoke about the much vaunted gay rights aspect, pointing out that there is no right to exploit another person, no one has a right to a child: a living person must not be bought or sold. A child, particularly an unborn and unconceived baby cannot possibly consent to a surrogacy arrangement.

Our dedicated delegates stuck with us on this horrible subject right through till 6pm and then hit the pub to carry on sistering. We were delighted to welcome the open-minded and much-maligned Shahrar Ali, formerly of the Green Party, who has stuck up for women’s rights in the currect transgender controversy. We wish him well in his case against the Green Party, you can support his crowd-funder.